Wimbledon PHOTOS: Federer cruises, fifth seed Errani knocked out

Fifth seed Sara Errani was out-gunned in the Wimbledon first round on Monday by a teenager playing her first senior match on grass -- Puerto Rican Monica Puig.

The hard-hitting, Miami-based Puig, ranked 65th in the world, battered the Italian to win 6-3, 6-2 on Court 18.

Errani, a finalist at the French Open last year and a semi-finalist there earlier this month, saved six match points but ran out of puff and answers to the 19-year-old Puig's relentless attacks.

Puig, who reached the third round here as a junior in 2010 but had never played a senior Grand Slam before this year's French Open, goes on to play unseeded Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa.

Errani, too, lives to fight another day, as one half of the top-seeded doubles team with compatriot Roberta Vinci.

Roger Federer began the defence of his Wimbledon title by breezing to a straight sets victory over Romanian Victor Hanescu on the opening Centre Court match of the championships.

The third-seeded Swiss barely broke sweat in demolishing his 48th-ranked opponent 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 with the final set taking only 17 minutes.

On a chilly afternoon Federer strolled serenely around the lush court and was never remotely troubled in a match lasting only 68 minutes.

Federer, bidding to become the first man to win the Wimbledon men's singles title eight times, will face Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in the next round.

Second seed Victoria Azarenka fought through the pain barrier after a nasty fall to beat Maria Joao Koehler 6-1, 6-2 to reach the second round.

The Belarussian had cruised through the first set against the Portuguese world number 106 and was one point away from going 2-0 up in the second when she slipped behind the baseline while trying to reach a shot and almost did the splits.

Azarenka screamed in agony as she lay on the grass, with some spectators taking a moment to realise the noise was real pain rather than the usual shrieks that accompany her every shot, and she received treatment there before taking a medical timeout.

Her right knee was strapped and she walked gingerly back to continue the match, serving two double faults immediately before eventually losing the game.

Hobbling between shots and unable to run for anything that landed away from where she was standing, Azarenka looked relieved when she won the match thanks to the errors of Koehler who failed to capitalise on her opponent's lack of mobility.

Third seed Maria Sharapova beat Kristina Mladenovic 7-6(5), 6-3 to move into the second round at Wimbledon on Monday but had to work hard to end the resistance of her French opponent.

Sharapova, champion in 2004 and losing finalist in 2011, was taken to a tiebreak in the first set before stepping on the gas and pulling away in the second.

The 26-year-old Russian will face either Portugal's Michelle Larcher De Brito or Melanie Oudin of the United States in the next round.

Andy Murray showed the class that carried him all the way to Olympic glory as he beat Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-3 ,6-2 to reach the second round.

Murray, who followed his runner-up finish to Roger Federer at Wimbledon last year by winning gold at the London Games on the same hallowed turf weeks later, extended his winning streak on grass to 12 as he dispatched Becker with minimum fuss.

The man who ended Britain's 76-year search for a men's Grand Slam champion by triumphing at the US Open last September dropped his serve only once as he tormented Becker with an assortment of baseline and volley winners.

The result also made Murray the most successful British man in Grand Slam history after he chalked up his 107th win, surpassing the record he shared with Fred Perry, the last home-grown men's champion at the spiritual home of lawn tennis.